#she hasn't even heard the name radagon yet

[tarnishedinquirer]

Location: Church of Pilgrimage

Once I emerged from the woods, I saw a group of wandering nobles heading up a hill towards a church. That seemed like a good place to stop next. Sitting outside was a ghost that spoke of a wandering mausoleum holding a soulless demigod, "Marika's unwanted child."

A wandering mausoleum? I pulled out my spyglass and scanned the horizon.

An impossibly large figure in the mist and the dark. At first I thought it was a building, but then I noticed it appeared to be standing on legs. I'd mistake it for a trick of the light, were it not for the ghost's words.

The graveyard was haunted by spirit jellies, and as soon as I stepped into it, skeletons began to rise from their graves. I dispatched them (the skeletons, not the jellies) and found a dead commoner slumped against a grave, holding a gilded iron shield. The way he was holding the shield made it look more like an offering than a failed defense.

For the first time I really started to think about these skeletons. They wear unique armor and carry unique weapons. It's as if they were all buried with the same grave goods, possibly from the same once-widespread culture. I don't recall any of them carrying shields like this, but it's something to keep in mind for the future. If only their equipment didn't decay along with their bones when they're slain.

Alarm bells started to go off as I picked up the Sacred Tear from the feet of the statue. Something wasn't right. I stepped back to get a better look and... who the hell is that? I'm pretty familiar with the icon of Marika. We even had her statue beyond the fog, but she looked a little more... alive, in those depictions. So who was this man in her place, and in the pose I'm more familiar with from all the church I skipped? What's that in the background, some sort of lattice?

If this is a church of pilgrimage, he must be a figure revered in this land on par with Marika. And this particular church, or at least this region, must be important to him.

Contemplating things by the Grace, I was again joined by Melina. She offered to tell me words once spoken by Marika here. So she at least approved of this worship. Her words seemed like a direct continuation of her words at the Third Church.

Then, after thy death, I will give back what I once claimed. Return to the Lands Between, wage war, and brandish the Elden Ring. Grow strong in the face of death. Warriors of my lord. Lord Godfrey.

So Godfrey was Marika's lord. Until now, I had assumed he was merely the Lord of Stormveil. And she stripped him and my ancestors of their Grace and sent them into the world, in hope that we would grow strong and one day return.

A reasonable assumption, then, would be that this church was dedicated to Godfrey. This was a place of pilgrimage, where people would go awaiting the return of Godfrey and his Tarnished. So that statue must be Godfrey.

At least now I have a face to put with the name. I wonder if he too has returned?

One last thing I found here: Some strange golden centipedes that the voice told me were crafting material.

Kept as a fetish by Golden Order fundamentalists, especially the hunters of Those Who Live in Death. As such, they are found near churches and similar. 

That's interesting. I've only ever known centipedes as a symbol of corruption. In the Land of Reeds, all vermin are considered corrupt, but centipedes in particular are often emblematic of kegare, a sort of spiritual filth and sickness. If the Golden Order Fundamentalists hold these as sacred, they're immediately suspect in my book.

I'm also guessing that "Those Who Live In Death" is what they call the undead here, to differentiate them from the ones who are somehow still alive despite becoming walking mummies or goop monsters. I'm not saying all that though, so I'll just keep calling them skeletons.

Questions:

Why would the Fundamentalists hold the centipede as sacred?

Why did Marika divest Godfrey of his Grace?

Why do the skeletons only wear unusual and archaic armor?

Why did Marika forsake her demigod children?